Starting this month with a continuation of Trinity Rising by Elspeth Cooper.

I have to admit that whilst I kinda like it, I'm really struggling with bits of it. It jumps around a little and I feel like I keep missing major things here and there. On top of that, there's been quite a few sex & rape scenes in the first 100 pages but I've been assured that after a certain point they drop off completely. Phew.

About halfway through Best Served Cold and really enjoying it. Abercrombie is one of the only new fantasy authors I've enjoyed in recent years (haven't tried Lynch or Rothfuss yet, because I'm getting sick of unfinished series).

Still plugging away at Reapers Gale. I'm about halfway through and I really can't say that it's good or bad. I would say that it's a big serving of the usual Malazan type story with a few dashes of new developments and a side of mild confusion about where this is headed.

However, as I've found to be the case with the other Malazan books, the last third of the book is usually what makes the reading the first two thirds "worth it". So onward and upward we go...

I only managed to read 2 fantasy books on holiday, but they were really good : The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun by N K Jemisin. I would compare them to The Long Price series by Daniel Abraham, for the focus on character studies and the magic system based on mind powers - in this case magic is distilled from dreams. I welcomed the change of scenery away from the Thousand Kingdoms setting, the toning down of the romance subplots (still present, but more subtly treated) in favor of politics and larger conflicts, the more confident writing style. I will follow this auhor career with great interest.

I finished Mage's Blood by David Hair; the book itself - action, characters, portrayal of the cultures (Western, Islamic and Indian in barely veiled disguise) and their clash well done with nuanced characters, good and bad guys and girls on both sides - the Sainted Mater-Empress Lucia takes top prize for pure evilness, though it degenerates into cartoonish stuff on occasion - but I had two structural issues that at least for now stops the series from being a top-top level one:

The world itself or at least the known continents are just a shrunken version of Europe and Asia and that makes it feel a little like a small sandbox rather than a real world and second the cultures described have been in isolation one from another for untold millenniums before a few hundred years ago when the appearance of magic in the world allowed the West to get to the East so to speak (that would be a third flaw in a way, why not do it the other way, with the East getting the magic and getting to the west first) and I just cannot believe the unitary nature of the cultures as despite surface differences there is a fundamental similarity between the Western, Islamic and Indian cultures in our world and in the world of the novel, which of course is not surprising in our world considering how they interacted and influenced each other forever so to speak (compare to the pre-Columbian Maya, Inca, Mexica or even the North American Native cultures and see what I mean), but it stretches the disbelief thingy in the novel

Still a gripping read, lots of twists and intriguing characters so I am in for the duration...

Still plugging away at Reapers Gale. I'm about halfway through and I really can't say that it's good or bad. I would say that it's a big serving of the usual Malazan type story with a few dashes of new developments and a side of mild confusion about where this is headed.

However, as I've found to be the case with the other Malazan books, the last third of the book is usually what makes the reading the first two thirds "worth it". So onward and upward we go...

Finished Embers of an Age by Tim Marquitz, I thought it was a major improvement from the first book in the series. Lots of action and character development. I look forward to the third installment.

With EoaA finished. I am going to jump into Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell in the hopes of finishing in before it comes to the theater. I have heard mixed reactions to the book, looks like you either love it or hate it. I hope that is not the case or at least I hope I fit into the love it portion of readers.

I have a lot of books that I really want to get to including Reaper's Gale. I love the Malazan series but with such large tomes, I can't read them back to back and have to give myself time to breath before venturing back into Erikson's world. But I should get back to it before the end of the year.

Reading the anthology Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous and I have to say that it's pretty amazing. It's mostly horror, full of monsters and whatnot, but it's also got some great post-apocalyptic and scifi.

Finished King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. The Broken Empire books seem like the kind of thing that should appeal to me except that they don't at all. I managed to finish this book, but I struggled with it as I just didn't care about what happened. I doubt I'll finish the series.

Finished Imager's Battalion by LE Modesitt (3rd Quaeryt book and 6th Imager overall) and it was again un-putdownable so despite my resolution to hold on to it for a little more (it's January 2013 pub date), I *had to* read it; of course now that I finished it I want book 4, Antiagon Fire asap

Excellent stuff, same structure as books 1/2 (Scholar/Princeps) though this one is mostly war, Imagers (magic, powerful but few magicians) against guns (musketeers and canon and lots of expendable soldiers) as Quaeryt leads 5th Battalion, the vanguard of the Southern Army of Telaryn commanded by his friend from Tilbor, Commander Skarpa, into Bovaria against the forces of cruel Rex Kharst.

From here some spoilers for previous books so will include in spoiler brackets, though no spoilers for this one:

After Qaeryt and Skarpa defeated the Bovarian invasion so decisively at Ferrravyl in the previous book, the Bovarians are on the defensive and unprepared as they lost all their invading army, but they still can muster 40+ regiments if given time, while Telaryn can manage 20-30 at most in addition of having all the logistical problems of an invading army in enemy territory, though luckily Rex Kharst is not that popular, only extremely feared

Also the hopes of the Pharsi nation (subjugated and persecuted by Kharst) rest on Quaeryt's shoulders too as his command is mostly Pharsi refugee soldiers and officers in addition of course to the few mostly untrained Imagers that he has to shape into war-practice too...

And not to make matters easier, his wife and Bhayar' youngest sister, Vaelora, now pregnant has her own job at court to co-rule with her sister-in-law Aelina, as Lord Bhayar is with the main Army of the North since he staked everything on the invasion too..

And the Telaryn Comannder in Chief, Marshal Deucalon doesn't like Quaeryt or Skarpa in the least so they get the minimum amount of soldiers and the maximum amount of hardship possible without triggering Bhayar's ire, while Sub-Marshal Myskil, former close confidant of governor Rescalyn and presumably involved in his plot to take over Telaryn and depose Bhayar, still remembers Quaeryt's so elegantly breaking the plot, while leaving a dead Rescalyn as big war hero of Telaryn

A great ending to boot and again, I cannot emphasize enough how good this series keeps being...

Hi, I'm new. I've been re-reading Ann McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. There were a lot of things I missed when I read it over 10 years ago. There was some talk about making Dragonflight into a movie, but that was before Ann McCaffrey died, so not sure if that is still in the works. I do love these books, but I haven't ready any of the ones with her son, Todd McCaffrey, I can't imagine that they would be as good.

Taken by Benedict Jacka, 3rd in the Alex Verus series. I really wanted to like this one.

Pros: I think that the writer may have a slightly better feel for his characters' dialogue. And I like the way that some of the plot points are continuing to develop in the series.

Cons: Pretty much everything else.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible. I just felt it was a bit worse than the second, which I found to be a bit worse than the first. I liked the plot in theory, but felt that the execution was lacking. At times it seemed to me that I could very much see behind the curtain and observe plot developments that seemed formulaic or obvious.

One scene in particular seemed to point a big red arrow towards a certain suspect, but the hero (who is supposed to be able to solve such mysteries) couldn't even begin to pick up on that obvious clue.

I'm sure that there are people who are enjoying this series, but it's just not working too well for me. It's possible that another book might lead to a turnaround, but I'm not certain that I'll give it another go (it might depend on what else is being released at the same time).

Silence, Book 1 in the Queen of the Dead series by Michelle Sagara. This is listed as YA, and while I've had very limited exposure to books in this category, I did enjoy this one. The fact that I am a very big fan of the author may have helped.

I found the writing intelligent (if a bit less sophisticated than some of her other series) and the characterization was, as always, a joy. The writer wanted to start with the relationship amongst a group of girls, and not make them rivals, but have them work together to support and protect each other, and especially a classmate of theirs with autism. For anyone looking for a positive and authentic depiction of autism in UF, this book fits the bill. The story includes many well-worn tropes, such as mysterious powers, events and groups, but the author managed to make them interesting enough (imo) to keep the story moving along well. I wouldn't recommend this story as much as I would some of her others, but for people looking for UF, a shorter story, strong characterization or some of the other items I listed above, this might be worth a try (it has a 3.82 rating on goodreads and a 4.1 on Amazon).

The Blinding Knife, Book 2 in The Lightbringer Series.

Brett Weeks may have improved a tad with his prose and characterization, but I continue to find this series quite lacking in complexity. Despite this, the author manages to make much of the book quite readable and entertaining, which I consider a decent accomplishment. Unfortunately for me, it fizzled out with about 150 pages or so left to go at the end. There was still a lot of action, but that, in and of itself, isn't really something that holds much interest for me. The author certainly has some great ideas, I just hope that he can continue to improve and make the next book better.

Magic Tests is a short story by Ilona Andrews from An Apple for the Creature. This short story takes place in the world of Kate Daniels and focuses on the supporting character of Julie. Kate does appear, though in the only real compliant I have, I thought that she would appear more than she did, based on the beginning of the tale. The story seemed to me a tad short, and the ending a bit predictable, but overall I found this to be a fun little mystery highlighting a character that hadn't yet seen the limelight. I enjoyed the story, but considering the book's high price ($26.95 MSRP), I think that most people would be better off waiting for this at a better price, unless they're already interested in one or more of the other tales in the anthology.

Cast in Peril is the eighth book in the Chronicles of Elantra series by Michelle Sagara. As has been the case since the second book in this series, Sagara delivers a fast-paced book with a unique blend of action, mystery, politics and strong characterization in a true Fantasy/Urban Fantasy hybrid. This is the longest book in the series, but paradoxically it seemed to me to be the most stripped down and plot-focused. The usual abundance of unique, interesting, charming, believable and original characters appear, as the story takes off immediately from the seventh book and never stops. This continues to be among the best series on the shelf and I've fully read it three times since it's publication two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, I wound up with Spellbound by Blake Charlton, second in the Spellwright series. After being informed that this is a YA series, and considering my impression of the first book, I've tried to keep my expectations low. I'm about 100 pages in, and still find the story to be quite lacking in complexity, but I'm trying to look for the positives. The pace is fast and I think that the author does a good job of switching from pov to pov, not lingering on any one too long. I'm never going to be a fan of this series, but I can say that I've read worse. I'll continue to read a bit at a time and see if my opinion changes.